On Monday November 30, 2015 the newspapers were all reporting the same; the drastic change in consumer behavior embodied in recently emerged holidays. Most holidays are already about material products, there is no going around that one. However, the increasing amount of new traditions that push even the boundaries of internet are interesting phenomena to follow. Especially as our company is one that operates to make these online shopping sprees as effortless as possible, I am truly intrigued.
The common trends in the Cyber Monday related articles are:
a) The increasing amount of web shoppers.
b) The unhappy reactions of these web shoppers to malfunctioning software.
Many newspapers quoted direct tweets from consumers, especially regarding the online queuing system of Target (Wired.com). It seems as if people have very little patience to wait in an invisible line. It does not matter even though the line is real in your system. The consumer cannot see a tangible obstacle in front of them, ergo for them it does not exist and entitles them to fury over the service.
Similar evolvements can be detected all over the globe. The Guardian also reported earlier on November 11, 2015 on the record online sales during Singles’ Day in China. “Shoppers have spent more than $9bn (£6bn) in the first 12 hours of China’s Singles’ Day sales, topping last year’s total for the world’s biggest online shopping day.” According to the article, online businesses compete ruthlessly on this day to attract China’s online population, which happens to be the biggest in the world.
Therefore, I just have one thought to share. Considering that the Christmas hassle is only upon us, are you ready for this revolution?
Here are my two cents regarding the proper preparations of an online business for the holiday buzz: check the functionality of your online shop, make sure the platform can handle the excess volume on those particular days, and finally double check your alarm system to be sure you are notified of downtime without delay.
